By Zainab Richardson | Staff Writer
Previously a national security correspondent, Sid Balman Jr. has written a new novel that shifts from his focus on foreign conflict to a tragedy closer to home: “The Mural.”
Based on the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, the book centers on a memorial mural sparking a First Amendment battle. It is set for release in February 2026, and the novel confronts the spread of violent extremism and the fierce cultural debates over grief and memory in a divided America, Balman said. The idea was first sparked by a conversation with a friend.
“I have a friend here in town, who is a muralist, and we talked a lot about it and she was actually commissioned to do one of them,” Balman said. “What an interesting way to tell this story of crime and violence and extremism and recovery through the experiences of one of those muralists.”
Balman took a unique perspective when writing the story. The book isn’t linear and highlights diverse perspectives. He incorporated characters like the mural artist, artist’s assistant, an ex-football player and an ex-army man who confronted the shooter.
The layered narratives within the book are also displayed in the cover art. But the road to the interpretation was a bumpy one, and Balman said there were struggles that come with finding cover art.
“Someone had suggested to me that I talk to this Mexican artist, and my publisher agreed we could do it out of house,” Balman said. “He’s also a muralist, so that had a special resonance for me.”
For Balman, the artist’s background in murals made him the ideal collaborator to bring this story to life. Miguel Valverde, the artist of the cover of “The Mural” said he was ecstatic to collaborate with Balman.
“After we connected and held a couple of meetings, I was given complete creative freedom once I began reading ‘The Mural,’” Valverde said. “That freedom is what allowed the project to flow naturally and achieve such strong results.”
Balman described the novel as “a testament to the power of love and the natural world of healing.” But the subject matter is heavy, and Valverde kept this in mind as he considered cover art.
“It is a complex response to articulate in any single language, but through art I found a more universal symbol to convey the message of this novel,” Valverde said. “My connection to the story came through human empathy — only through empathy can we truly connect with and feel the profoundly painful events it addresses.”
Balman’s publicist Bella Whitmore said the heaviness of the subject matter meant it had to be handled with care. The book wasn’t just an opportunity for PR, but also a way to connect with people who had suffered similar experiences.
“We did do a lot of outreaches in different communities and cities that have had a mass shooting in the past,” Whitmore said. “[It was] kind of like a nationwide outreach to different communities that might be hurting or affected by the same issues of gun violence.”
